and experts you will get throughout the day, complete coverage of this breaking story, which started with a shootout and a murder at m.i.t. last night. the robbing of a 7-eleven, a carjacking and then ultimately a chase with guns and bombs being thrown out of the window and the ultimate killing of one of the two suspects in the boston marathon bombing. i'm mika bruzinky, now to chuck todd with more coverage here on msnbc. >> thank you, mika. our coverage continues. good morning. i'm chuck todd. this is the scene right now. a rapidly changing situation in watertown, massachusetts, just outside of boston. authorities have just issued a no-fly zone over the area. we have 50 massachusetts national guardsmen in watertown in a staging area with law enforcement. the entire city of boston is now being asked to shelter in place, as law enforcement officials methodically search for the second suspect and possibly concerned about a third.

joining me live in watertown, katy tur, describe the scene that you're witnessing right now. >> it has got an lot more act aive here in the past few minutes. a police helicopter that is circling this area for the last 20 minutes or so. they are circling the area which is right over here, diagonal from where i am. we did see police cruisers speed that way and arm aered vehicles speed that way and we are hearing reports of some activity. we have reporters that are closer to the scene and they are saying that it does appear a bomb squad is going into a house. it's much more active than it was a few minutes ago. to give you an idea of where we are in relation to how everything has been happening. the shootout that happened early this morning happened in this general vicinity happened a couple blocks from here. that's where the suspect was killed and the second suspect fled. they have been searching this

area for a number of hours. seven plus hours going door-to-door, knocking on doors and trying to figure out where the suspect might be. they're asking everyone in this area to stay inside, especially right now as things start to heat up. they want to make sure there is no one else gets in the way of what's going on. it does seem, though, chuck, there is something happening in there. i wish we could give you more details. we just can't see that far in. >> no worries, katy, we'll check back in with you in a few minutes. i want to bring in michael isikoff, he's in boston and following the nitty-gritty of the investigation. michael, there's been two reports this morning in the last half hour, pete williams saying that the authorities believe they know where dzhokhar tsarnaev is, the suspect in the white hat is. and concerns about a third relative, which explains the larger drag net, if you will, and why the entire greater boston area was asked to shelter in place. >> it could explain that, chuck,

because there's a contradiction there. if they know where he is, why would they shut down the entire city of boston, which they did like less than an hour ago when governor patrick came out here. there's still a lot of unanswered questions here, but, first, i want to point out, chuck. we're right across at the watertown mall right across the street is the main staging area that you were referring to before. and earlier this morning and we've been here for hours now, we saw convoys of military humvees, buses filled with police, motorcycles, state police officers and all congregating in that staging area in the parking lot right behind us. there's a marshal's department store there. it looked to me at first like there was going to be some, they were planning for some sort of confrontation or assault, we haven't seen that yet. all still congrugaegating there. we're still monitoring that

situation. obviously, if they know where he is, we'll see a lot of people moving to that area. this has been, as everybody said, go ahead, chuck -- >> no, mike, two people that have supposedly been brought in for questioning. not necessarily arrested, so, we're being careful with the words there. that lived in the apartment that the two brothers lived in. is that correct? >> we have heard that. but, again, as we saw in the boston marathon investigation, being brought in for questioning, far cry for being a suspect or being under arrest. we had the saudi national that was questioned at the apartment and he turned out to be entirely innocent and had no relationship to it. so, i think we do have to be cautious about that. what is, you know, pretty inexplicable here is just look through the sequence of events. late yesterday afternoon the fbi

releases the photo and the video and then it is within five hours of that that at 10:30 last night that these two guys, knowing the entire world is looking for them go rob a 7-eleven and engage in a shootout with an m.i.t. police officer. shoot him, kill him in his car hijack the black muraidsiercede and engage in the chase where they hurl ieds at police and what plan does that make sense under? >> well, that's right. >> understand if their goal was to spread terror in the boston marathon bombing, you can, you know, they did what they planned to do. but this seems inexplicable and what further plans this guy has, if any, is hard to discern at

this point. >> michael isikoff in watertown there. we'll get back to you. we've just been showing you that was video images from overnight that we got of the shootout itself. that was the initial shootout where the older brother ended up being killed. i want to bring in lester holt here. lester, the entire city of boston, greater boston now in lockdown and everybody being told to stay inside. what do you know right now? >> well, it sounds extraordinary. and it is. but you think about what this suspect number two has allegedly done over the last several days. a bombing that kills three, maims others and injures 170 and shoots a police officer in cold blood. shoots another police officer and wounds him. shoots at police, throws grenades and then holds a standoff, if you will, a shootout. it doesn't get any more desperate than that. and i think right now with this suspect cornered, they fear he could do anything with guns and explosives. we're seeing things here on the

streets of watertown that i last saw on my last trip to afghanistan. s.w.a.t teams, not troops, but the same look, the same kind of movements, gingerly going around corners. gingerly objects that may or may not be explosives. a flurry of activity here in the last ten minutes or so. we saw an explosive ordinance and vehicles and converging on areas just over my shoulder here. it's been covering the story has been trying to watch and interpret movements of police here, which is a very difficult thing to do here. obviously, they have to expect the suspect could be around any corner and check out any unknowns. very difficult to determine what we have been seeing and only gauge to the level of interest and urgency. when this was all going down last night y was watching the local news when they broke out that there might have been a shooting at m.i.t. and a police officer was shot. even then we couldn't make the link to the marathon bombings.

and then i recall just hearing the crescendo of sirens increase, increase, increase and you know something was going down and we all find ourselves here. yes, putting a million people essentially under lockdown and shutting down an entire metropolitan area this size sounds extraordinary but, chuck, this is an extraordinary threat. >> lester holt, thank you very much. i want to bring in my colleague, willie geist. we want to update people. there is a lot of folks just waking up on the west coast. it's been an extraordinary 11 hours now since the robbery at the convenience store. the attempted robbery by these two brothers. we know that one is still loose. dzhokhar tsarnaev. we know the older brother tamerlan tsarnaev is dead. we know two people in custody, not necessary related, that live in the apartment that these two brothers live in.

willie, you have been covering things overnight. give us the tick talk through that convenience store robbery to where we are right now. >> as pete williams is pointing out for us this morning this came out because of the actions of these two alleged terrorists. they decided to rob a 7-eleven at 10:20 in cambridge. they went and murdered a police officer sitting in his vehicle at m.i.t. that led to a carjacking. they took a black mercedes suv. they held at gunpoint the driver of that car for 30 minutes before releasing the driver unharmed. at that point, there's a chase and authorities come into the town of watertown, as mike barnicle described it for us this morning. a bedroom community of 32,000 people and there was a shootout in the streets of watertown. suspect number one. the one we have come to known in the black hat. was on the ground. authorities found him with an

ied. improvised explosive device on his person. pete williams has reported now that his brother, his own brother in fleeing in that mercedes suv ran over his own brother. eventually that suspect died at the hospital. but we can't overstate how remarkable it's been this morning, chuck, that there is a lockdown of a major american city. a shelter in place, as it is known. this is the kind of thing you hear about when there's chemical leaks or huge gas explosions. people stay inside for their own health and well being. we talked to police chief john timany who headed up the police departments in philadelphia and we talked to michael chertoff this morning and neither of them could remember a situation, not only where this has happened but where it is considered to shut down and ask all residents of a major american city to go inside. they talked about it during 9/11, but decided against it. you have people in a middle

class town seeing s.w.a.t teams out their window. a no-fly zone over a small town in the western suburbs of boston. it is unprecedented. >> it's unbelievable there, willie. thank you. want to bring in roger, a long-time nbc news terrorism analyst and, roger, what you're seeing unfolding. try to sort of bring viewers in. we're seeing they believe they know where one individual is. there is a concern, they locked down all of boston because they seem to have some vague concerns and not quite sharing with us what they are, vague concerns. walk us through what is going on. >> it's remarkable and surreal at the same time. what you're seeing is two things. the media pursuit of the second individual and then the broader concern that there may be one, if not more associated in one way, shape or form. we use the term abundance of caution and what law enforcement does and that's another, this is

another example of that. but remarkable, as willie has said. remarkable the city of boston locked down the way it is. >> on one hand law enforcement pursuing this, the younger brother here. trying to make sure busten is sa safe. on the other hand, we know these two young men are. we know their nationalities and learning some things. what is the intel community doing and what kind of international help do you suspect we're getting right now? >> everybody the intelligence community has speed dial right now. they're going through their own databases, again, now that they have nationalities and they have names. what are the linkages. first question is, are there any additional individuals related to these two who might have a role in what happened over the past week. the second is, is there any information that liaison services can provide us to give us a better understanding of who these individuals are. we talked since monday, chuck,

about who, why and how. why is always the toughest question and that's what we're going to spend a lot of time on. >> they want to, obviously, understand the why to figure this out. is this politically motivated? does it have to do -- we know the chechnya issue with the russians, is this just coincidence? >> chechnya was never our fight and the united states government for years has made sure that was not the case. so, what motivated these individuals? something that happened domestically? their family, evidently, has been in the united states for a period of time. something involved domestically that triggered this? relatives overseas and something happened there that motivated them? was there another connection? we don't know yet. it will take some time. the good news, chuck, we'll get the answer to that. >> let me bring in james, former age ant ov at atf.

walk me through what role atf is playing right now and what you think we're not seeing on tv. we're seeing a lot on tv right now, but what we're not seeing. >> atf has a special response team there. i saw them on the live feed. the s.w.a.t team and also saw the fbi s.w.a.t and the massachusetts police s.w.a.t and the local police s.w.a.t. it's an interchangeable term and the way those teams are equipped. they have the bear cat vehicle you see. the tactical agents or police officers that are helmet, bulletproof vests and rifles and they have long rifles and snipers and they have tear gas capabilities and they have a hostage negotiation unit tied with them. each one of those units has that. boston is going to be safe. there's a lot of resources there. they could handle this crew here is the dream team and they could handle multiple incidents.

the critical thing going on that you're watching, chuck, you made the point earlier. lester did, what are we seeing here? if they're around a place where they think treatment like a barricade or possible hostage incident, the way we deal with that is a process called locate, isolate, evacuate, eliminate the threat. and that's what you'll see going on here. standard tactical procedure. a perimeter set up by the officers who are not s.w.a.t. you may be looking at that. inner perimeter that they'll firm up and try to find out the key question is white hat alone or does white hat have somebody else with him maybe as a hostage? that's the first question. >> the associated press believes they've located the suspect's father in russia. not going to attempt to pronounce the city name. but the father is quoted spoke with the associated press by

telephone from russia and he just simply said about his son, he is a true angel he called him and said dzhokhar a second year medical student in the united states. such an intelligent boy we expected him to come home on holidays here. little bit of a surprise. roger to tell you, you know, we know he has russian ties and we're learning more every second. >> we'll pull the string on this very quickly and get more information on a minute-by-minute basis. >> pete williams. what do we know? the last thing you reported two folks in custody, not arrested. that have lived in that apartment that the two brothers lived in. what more do we know right now? >> that's actually not my reporting, chuck. but i believe that's accurate we heard from our nbc colleagues. what i can say is that, i'm getting, frankly, conflicting reports on the only concern that police and federal agents have

right now are the two brothers. one of whom is dead and the other is the survivor. this picture taken, perhaps i'm looking, that's right. you were looking at on the screen there. i was looking at a wrong monitor here. he's the one they're trying to find and the question is whether there are others. whether there are potential accompli accomplices. this picture here is one that the fbi just recently released that looks -- >> a photo. >> like maybe some kind of a driver's license picture or a passport picture. it has that look to it. but there may be, it's safe to say, let's say there is at least a concern that there may be potential accomplices, i guess, is the right word. and i think that helps to explain the extraordinary security that we've seen with these entire communities locked down. because i think there is a concern, a fear that perhaps that they don't have this all in

hand. they don't have their arms precisely around the situation. and that's why they've imposed this really a unpresdenned security environment in the boston area this morning. >> is it a new threat that they're trying to figure out? is that -- a new threat come in in the last few hours and that's what explains it or just finding this third relative or potentially? >> yeah, i'm not sure that i'd call them a threat. just a concern that they may have had accomplices and whether those accomplices have made threats, i don't know. but i believe that's the -- i believe that's part of the answer why they're concerned here. although i have to point out, we heard conflicting information about this. but several people who are in a position to know and are good sources say that that is the concern. now, as for the two brothers. i think you've discussed this some. the family came to the u.s., we're told, in 2002 or 2003 and claimed asylum.

the father had been some kind of public official in either chechnya or kyrgyzstan. either a prosecutor or a police officer. so, the brothers have been here for a decade. one was born in russia. one is born in kyrgyzstan. and, so, they are from that region, but have been here for a decade. >> now, the associated press claims they've interviewed their father in russia. so, that would sort of conflict, that would conflict with this idea that the family is here in the united states. >> not necessarily. it would indicate that the family came in 2002. he may have returned to russia. that's a part of the puzzle we don't have. but we know for certain that the two brothers have been here for a decade. >> and there's been some question about their residency status. definitely know that the older

brother was a legal resident or is that still unclear? >> legal, permanent resident, yes. >> and the other, dzhokhar the person you're looking at on the screen. did plant the second bomb. he was a resident of cambridge, but his precise immigration status is unclear. >> and what do we know about the two people brought into custody? not much more beyond that? >> again, that's not in my reporting. i'm just not sure what the situation is there. >> pete williams, thank you, sir. >> you bet. >> andrea mitchell, this issue of refugees, explain the united states policy on this. >> this is a very, very difficult part of the world for a lot of americans. we don't know very much about it. most people don't. chechnya has had serial revolutions, really, against

russia. there were -- >> still technically part of russia. >> it was the chechnya that brought putin as a strong man into power. there were, of course, several mage aer terrorist incidents in mou moscow including movie theater and we covered all that in the past and until 2008 and now it has start eed separatist moves started back. in '99 and 2000 links with elements of al qaeda and even contacts between a former now dead cheleader. >> could get political asylum here? >> absolutely. what we now need to know and, of course, intelligence officials are working on as michael chertoff and other former homeland chiefs have said is going back and finding out any visa information.

did these brothers leave the united states? did they go to training camps and have any contact with militant groups? >> roger, the other part of this is, did something set them off? the why. did something personal set them off? something that some united states policy set them off. did some russian policy set them off? that's the other thing they're going to try to unravel here. >> what is really remarkable about this. we had individuals live in this country for a number of years and they decided to kill their fellow citizens because, in effect, as legal permanent residents, what triggered it? as andrea said, a long history of rebellion and ties with known terrorist organizations. that doesn't mean any of that is related to the actions of these individuals right now, but all potential links and ties are what is going to be examined in the days and weeks ahead. >> as we saw with newtown, people do crazy things.

before we leak to any conclusions -- >> a motive. >> we need to better understand these two individuals. simply could be two individuals who were set off by some reason. they know where the white hat suspect is. is this a situation you believe they're negotiating with him or make contact with him or just simply trying to wait him out? >> as jim kavanagh said, there is a standard procedure to deal with a situation like tat and you look at it in terms of a hostage situation. ultimately and ideally, they want to bring this person out alive. they want to minimize any potential loss of life. so, if they have isolated him in a place where they have high confidence that they have a secure perimeter, then they'll take as long as necessary to try to get him to surrender, if, in fact, that's the case right now. >> in about seven minutes the

president is going to get a direct briefing from robert mueller, they're both headed to the white house in less than ten minutes. i want to bring in cliff van zandt former fbi profiler. clint, you've been hearing everything. my apologies there. you have been hearing everything about learning more and more little bit about who these brothers are. what kind of profile would you be putting together right now? >> well, number one, we all have to admit it is amazing to get this much information this quickly. you look yesterday we barely had two photographs. today we've got the full pedigree basically on these guys right now. and i agree with some of your recent comments. what we're trying to understand is -- are these just two individuals just decided to do this terrible act or are they part of some type of cell where.

were they a sleeper cell that was put into place here simply sitting here waiting to act out. we know one of the individuals on his social networking site made negative comments about russia. we also know that the russian president is watching this situation very close because, obviously, they're going to have the olympics and he's going to have to deal with separatists who, unfortunately, have a rich, dark history of using bombs in terrorist type incidents. >> being asked by your bosses while at the fbi, is this an individual that is going to turn himself in or an individual that is going to have to be taken dead, not alive? >> well they're going to give him a choice. his choice will be surrender or die. they would like to take him alive and if he's listening to our words right now, this is the time to be able to say why you did this.

you know, most of us are going to write these two brothers off as a couple of nuts who committed a terrible act, but they know what they did. they know why they did it and if this second individual, this 19-year-old decides he wants to die in some stupid suicidal blaze of glory, his side of the story is never going to get out. he's never going to get to say why they did this. and it's all going to be for vain. the death, the injury a, everything is going to be for vain. so, this is the time for him to step up and say, i have a story to tell. i know the media wants to hear it. i'm ready to tell the story. that's the time law enforcement will bring him out, let him tell his story and give him his day in court. >> clint van zandt giving us insider perspective of potential conversations going on if, indeed, they have dzhokhar surrounded. i want to go to ron allen in a

desserted city of boston. ron, walk us through the lockdown. >> well, chuck, this whole lockdown scenario affects about a million people in greater boston. watertown, newton and here in the heart of boston. i'm in the back bay. this usually would be a very busy commuter rail station. also an amtrak station. but the trains are not running between providence and boston. you can see all there is is wind-blown newspapers. the street is completely empty. as you go in this direction across the street, this is looking towards coply square. >> let me stop you there. ron, we didn't have your camera on. we had your voice up and still showing watertown. now your camera is up. describe for us. >> here we are in coply square, completely desserted, as you can see. normally a place that is full of business people, workers going back and forth. and over this way, i don't ethink you saw this. this was the train station.

back bay train station in the south end of boston. you can also see heavy security inside there. but this area completely desserted and that street behind me desserted. a complete 180. this area, again, even a starbucks down the street here is closed off as people are heeding the warning to stay sheltered in place. down in that direction. you can see a few people out milling about, but very eerie place here and a lot of police activity. police cars driving down the streets and some heading towards watertown and cambridge where all the other activity is going on. the suspect's house, as well as the heavy operation, the s.w.a.t teams are. but, again, schools are closed here. public schools. this is a college town. boston college, boston u, they're all closed down and probably for some time. chuck? >> all right, ron allen, thank you very much. i want to recap where everything stands now, do a little reset. we know some of you on the west

coast are just waking pup. authorities issued a no-fly zone over the greater boston area. a manhunt is under way for this man, the man known to be in the white hat believed to be responsible for the monday bombings at the boston marathon. his name is dzhokhar tsarnaev. he is 19 years old and considered armed and dangerous. police believe they know where this man is and that's the action we've been seeing in watertown. boston police released this picture. this was caught by a 7-eleven security camera last night. >> we believe this to be a terrorist. we believe this to be a man who has come here to kill people. we need it get him in custody. >> now, tsarnaev was born in kyrgyzstan and has a massachusetts driver's license and a resident of camridge. his brother tamerlan tsarnaev, 26 years old, now dead. he was born in russia and became a legal, permanent resident of the united states in 2007.

the fbi released this video of the two suspects to the media late yesterday asking for information from the public. then, at approximately 10:20 p.m. last night, police received reports of shots fired on the m.i.t. campus. at 10:30, an m.i.t. campus police officer was found fatally wounded in his vehicle after multiple gunshots. he was transported to mass general and pronounced dead. tsarnaev the suspect in the white hat was caught on surveillance tape robbing that cambridge 7-eleven. a short time later police received reports that two men carjacked a mercedes suv and the slm was kept in the car with the suspects for half an hour and then later released unharmed at a gas station. it led to a chase through the streets of watertown. the suspects exchanged gunfire with police and threw explosives and hand grenades out of the car window. an eyewitness saw it all from his third floor apartment window.

>> i went to the window and right outside our apartment there were two shooters outside a black mercedes-benz suv. in between the two cars taking cover behind the black suv and shooting down our street which is laurel street and shooting westward towards what looks to be about six to ten watertown police department vehicles. while they were engaging in gunfire, they were also using explosives. at that point, one of the shooters ran towards the officers while still engaging in gunfire. and while he was still shooting at them, a few seconds later, the second shooter got back into the suv and turned it around. and went full speed into the police officers. >> then bullets went through his wall and into his apartment. he took pictures of the bulletholes in his roommate's chair. during the chase, a police

officer was seriously injured and has been hospitaled. at the end of the chase, authorities shotted and killed tamerlan tsarnaev, the 26-year-old brother. he was run over by a car and when police approached his body, they discovered an ied strapped to his chest. he was transported to beth israel hospital where he was pronounced dead. >> at about 1:10, we were notified by the boston ems, by the radio system that we had a patient that was coming in with multiple injuries. that patient arrived here at 1:20 by boston ems by the p1 crew who did an exemplary job but he was in traumatic arrest with cpr ongoing. we spent about 10, 15 minutes trying to resuscitate this patient with a number of procedures being done. that were unsuccessful at 1:30

in the morning he was pronounced. >> authorities believe the brother that is on the run ran over his brother, tamerla a n in that, and essentially killed him. again, massachusetts governor deval patrick has since suspended transit in boston. he's asking residents to stay in their homes. the fbi has released a new wanted poster of the suspect, dzhokhar tsarnaev. the president was briefed overnight and being updated as we speak by the attorney general. at this moment, two people are in police custody at the home where the two suspected terrorist brothers lived with other family members. but we emphasize those folks are not technically under arrest. we can also just report this. our colleague at wnbc, police stopped an amtrak train from going from boston to newark to search for dzhokhar tsarnaev.

there was no sign of the suspect and the train has since been released. i now want to bring in evan kohlmann, another one of our nbc terrorism advisors. evan, what can you, you heard all of this information. you're digesting it. tell us what you think is going on right now in the intelligence community and what, what you're sort of surmising as you hear all this information. one of the things that we are looking at beyond the government are the electronic trails that these folks might have left. not surprisingly it appears that two guys in their 20s, they were using the internet and it appears they did leave a trail behind. one of the more interesting aspec aspects, an amazon.com wishlist which appears to be in the name of tamerlan tsarnaev, one of the suspects. some of the titles on that wishlist. >> let me stop you there. do we know this is -- we don't know for sure if this is his

amazon wish list. >> i want to stress, we don't know for sure. >> but it is his name. >> i want to stop you there. our folks. we want to stop you there. we don't want to necessarily say this on air yet until we verify it. >> understood. the other direction we're looking at right now is, of course, what group might have been involved in this. were these individuals or were they being sent out by an a organization? and it's interesting the background of these folks. individuals of chechhen background. there are several organizations, though, over on the afghan, pakistani border that recruit people just like these suspects. people of chechen background and one of these groups known as the islamist jihad unit. this group has previously attempted to launch a prit sophisticated bombing attack on

frankfurt airport. in fact, it's not only, you know, evidence to that effect. the group actually claimed credit for it. the group puts out videos -- >> these are the -- i didn't mean to cut you off there. those are the type of, we don't want to draw so many conclusions. but your point here is this is the type of string that the intelligence community is going to start pulling at, is that right? >> precisely. precisely. we don't know what group, if there was a group. but this is what investigators are looking for right now. and i think one of the interesting things, too, is that trying to figure out whether these people actually have a tie back to an organization. it's not entirely clear right now. just because someone comes to the united states with an intention of killing american nationals, if that was their intention, doesn't take a group to do that. there was a group of guys back a few years ago in 2007 who attempted to carry out some bombings in london.

failed nightclub bombings and eventually they crashed a vehicle into glasgowator. at first they thought it was home grown and later a tie to al qaeda. that's one question we have to look at right now. >> evan kohlmann, i appreciate your insight on this. i want to bring in richard engel. we don't talk about the chechen conflict much. it's not our fight. share some of what you know about this region. >> i think i can verify some of what evan has been talking about. i have been on the phone with counterterrorism officials today. they told me they are in a bit of a wait and see mode that they don't know who these people are precisely. i mean, we know their names. but what motivated them and, specifically, did they or do they belong to any organized terrorist group?

the suspicion, however, is that they may be linked to that group that evan was just talking about. i know counterterrorism officials are looking at this. they are operating with the assumption that maybe they are linked to this group or some faction of this group. they are operating under the assumption that the older suspect that you mentioned may have been the leader of this small cell, if it was, in fact, a terrorist cell that was deployed or home grown cell. but they are looking back at this organization. islamic jihad unit. whether these groups are tied to that or not, we don't know. this is an al qaeda faction. it is a group that encompasses all of the nonarabic speakers. we do not know. i can confirm that u.s.

officials are starting to look in that direction. >> we want to emphasize there is no link yet, no link and may not be at a link at all what we're trying to let people know, as richard you just pointed out, what is the intelligence community doing right now? they're pulling at so many strings. i want to bring in massachusetts congressman bill keating. congressman keating, represents the boston area. have you been updated this morning by authorities? what can you share with us that you know? >> no, this is fast breaking. this is on a need to know basis. there is no reason to be dealing with homeland security officials right now. i think that we all had confidence that this would be resolved and we would be able to bring the people responsible to justice. but it has been quite remarkable how quickly law enforcement authorities have been able to process the information and then move on it and they train every day at the joint terrorism task force for this and little did we

think that i think in the region that we would be seeing this on television and hunkered down in our own homes. >> it is stunning. it is a little surreal and a lot of people feeling the way that you feel. i know you are on the house homeland commity and the last briefing you got, i assume, was some time yesterday afternoon. have you been satisfied with how you've been briefed. how massachusetts officials, federal officials and everything working pretty smoothly? >> this is, you know, this is the result of a lot of resources and assets being brought to it. also on the foreign affairs committee y must tell you, again, we have a lot of dots to connect. but people wondered why symbolically this might have been a target and, again, we're getting way ahead of ourselves, chuck. but something that came to my mind is the fact that this date, we all look at the date in terms

of the united states, in terms of significance. but in chechnya, there is some significance symbolically that is attached to this date because on april 15th and april 16th that is the date that russia ended its counterterrorism effort in chichnia and it has symbolic weight in that region. that came to my mind. let's look and see what we can get. that date has some significance in chechnya. >> congressman bill keating, i appreciate you sharing what you know and what you learned. this morning we'll keep checking back in with you. thank you, sir. roger, everybody is pulling string here. we want to emphasize, we all have been wanting to know the why, we're desperate to know the why. now we can explain it. it very well could be two kids who happen to come from chechnya who went bonkers. >> right. everyone's inclination right now

to put it into high gear and we need to down shift. let's see what happens in bausen with the events taking place. are there possible links? there always are. but that doesn't necessarily mean it's related to what happened on monday. the point we should make is the intelligence community's responsibility right now is to take the name and go through their database. >> and to do this. pull every string that they possibly can. >> leading up to monday, no known threat. no actionable, credible specific intelligence related to any threat in the boston area. so, until we get specific linkages, we really need to be careful. >> let's talk a about, andrea, this is, roger, you put it so well. this wasn't our fight for chechnya. how good is our intelligence in chechnya? we are so good right now at knowing about all of al qaeda and arabian peninsula. how well is our intelligence in

chechnya, andrea? >> probably better than one would think because you have whole units of our intelligence community who remain devoted to these areas. >> old cold war desks. >> and these actually, in the, you know, in the '90s and the first decade of, you know, 2000, this was a very hot area. so, this was a pretty big area of intelligence research by both the state department and intelligence community and that expertise does not evaporate. people do get moved with more resources being allocated to north africa and to yemen. >> andrea, i want to stop you right here. we have an update on the third potential suspect. here's what our folks on the ground are reporting. police in, we have richard espozito has been reporting to this. richard, i think i have you with me. so, there is a third accomplice and they think he was on that train. i had just reported a few minutes ago about this train, the ama track tratrak train tha

stopped between boston and new york. you have more information on this. go. >> it looks like police are now saying they're seeking two men. two accomplices. the brother of the slain suspected terrorist and another man who appears to have been dropped off at south station in boston where he took a train to connecticut. it's unclear who he is or what his role was. what is known, that train has been surouned and stopped. it is a very fluid situation. >> and at this point, because before we had an earlier report that the train, they searched the train and not found anybody and let the train go. that clearly is not the case. >> you know, sometimes there is a lag in the information. this is the latest we're getting from the police in boston. you know how fast these things have been changing. what we do know is in addition to this it appears they also found an unexploded device, an

improvised bomb in boston today. the police have rendered it safe. it is one thing that causes them to shut the whole city down. >> they found it near a mass transit station, if i'm not mistaken. >> i believe that's where it is. >> now, you have been the one reporting about two people in custody, potentially just for questioning. that lived in the apartment with the two brothers that we think, in the apartment we think the two brothers lived in. what more do you know about these two individuals? >> our folks in cambridge saw the people put into handcuffs. police say they are not arrested. they may have not been questioned and they have been released and there was no one placed under arrest after we captured that on video. >> all right, richard esposito. one of our lead investigatori i producers on this. thanks very much. i want to go to lester holt in watertown. everything is moving fast. what are you seeing on the ground right now? >> well, first of all, we just

heard there kind of explains why this region-wide lockdown, even as we suspect that they may have a good idea where suspect number two is. the helicopter continues to orbit the area, honing in on specific places and then widening out. the level of activity from our advantage point seems to have dropped in the last several minutes. we have seen a fleury uo flurry vehicles going down the street in one direction. a number of military vehicles. i think kerry sanders referred to those. there are some national guard military police units along with explosive ordinance and experts in dismantling or rendering safe, explosive devices. they need that robust presence because explosive devices tau d tossed f eed from the vehicle a tossed at police.

explosive devices there, as well. it's a ghost town here. really remarkable scene. normally large media settings like this, you get a lot of people coming out and curious and wanting to take pictures. not a lot of that here. these streets are empty people are genuinely concerned and genuinely afraid and my guess is they're locked on to local tv. very unnerving thought that a man as desperate as this man apparently is is an incredible danger to everyone. >> lester holt in watertown. as we know, the manhunt has been expanded there after two individuals. dzhokhar tsarnaev and an unnamed accomplice that caught an amtrak train. i want to bring in roger back in and james kavanagh. you're hearing this new information. now, at this point, you have to wonder, authorities, anybody who had contact, i assume, with these two brothers is now going to be of interest to

authorities. >> right, chuck. you have to read these events and that's what commanders are doing on the ground here. these guys went into mission mode last night after the task force released their photographs. they went into mission mode. they were caught, or at least in the shootout, you know, device was found. another pressure cooker. the dark hat brother had a bomb strapped to his chest. you know, he committed suicide. maybe he was wounded by the officers. they went into mission mode. they might have dropped this other conspirator at the train station, if that's true. and maybe left another device around boston, which could be another pressure cooker. but what that tells is, this was a bombing campaign that was in its nation stage with the devices at the marathon. that might have been just the first two. they had, apparently, two more, or they could have made two more in a day and he had one strapped on him. when the photographs came out,

they went into mission mode. what did they do? armed robbery to get money. kill a police officer, an m.i.t. police officer. this is the same mission as the bombs at the marathon. and then the carjacking and they still have a pressure cooker bomb with them. so, the mission was on and they were going to kill more people. now, what's going on on the screen is the tactical teams in the isolate process and evacuating the neighbors you saw earlier. so, what they're doing is tightening the perimeter down. they probably believe dzhokahar is in one of these locations. clint and i are negotiators and this is a 19-year-old man and the first thing they're going to try to do is negotiate. whether dzhokhar believe it or not, all the police want to do is apprehend him. he can live. he can talk to the negotiators and get his message out, like

clint said. clint is dpaexactly right. his belief, whatever it is, like roger and evan talked about it, a lot of it is just inside his head. >> want this kid alive. >> everybody wants him alive and he has to talk and to talk and have to be able to get that discussion to go. the key issues are, is he alone or holding somebody. that's the key issue. >> thank you for bringing that issue up. obviously this is an extra precaution there. this issue with the train and we have conflicting reports and as my colleague said, it's all moving very fast. clearly a concern that this was as he described, a mission. they clearly -- this was more than just a random act. >> one conclusion if this was not just the device, but whether

or not it started because of the pictures being release and they went into mission mode where they were planning to have a series of additional attacks. the fbi press conference and forced their hand. we will find out that when the boston attack happened, it's not a suicide bomber. that eliminates one profile. they have not issued a political manifesto and were they going to flee? they stay and put together devices which means they were looking to do additional attacks. >> let's explain exactly how -- everyone said what do the officials know. they are in receive mode. >> we know that the fbi director is at the white house briefing the president. she most likely being briefed by john brennan, the cia director who was his counter terror officer. they're doing what we are doing.

i would suspect that brennan is at the cia in the control room at the counter terrorism center and on a video conference. probably in a situation room right now rather than the oval office. that would be most likely what is going on there. i can tell thaw john kerry the secretary of state was supposed to be doing a google hang out, but it has been postponed. they let us know that that is being postponed and there is a foreign policy component and kerry has been involved in the briefings as a native bostonian. he was emotionally affected in the last couple of days. we noticed that. >> and roger, as we are going through these initial reports and what they are getting in,they are getting everything foreign and domestic and going through old intercepts right now.

did they miss something or something that they thought was nothing to it. >> they are going through cell phone records. >> completely. as andrea said, washington has no immediate role. this is all tactical and local, but it's about pulling all the strings on information and see what exactly is the picture that now can be participated. when i was at the white house, it was getting information and bringing it into the west wing and make sure the president had a list of understanding at that moment and reminding everyone that first reports are often wrong and we'll wait for corroboration and confirmation. you expect the president to be careful what he says publicly and making sure that when he does say something, it is sticking to the events in boston and not drawing broader conclusions about that. >> an important for the news media as well.

>> also why he was careful what to say when he department use the terrorism word at the time. you have to wait. his words will have an international reach. >> keep in mind that using the word terrorism triggers a series of legal components. if you are looking at prosecution of individuals, the white house has to be careful what they say and when they say it. >> i want to bring in dylan drier. walk me through. obviously you have done this and walk us through the parts of boston for people who don't know boston well. >> boston is a very small city. everything is very accessible. i spent the past six years in boston and lived in charlstown which is north of the north end. we played softball in watertown. they are so easily accessible. the fact that everything started

on monday in the back bay area, it's a highly trafficked area and a great tourist town for shopping and the restaurants. the marathon bombing at the finish line was at the back bay area. if you head over the bridge at mass avenue, that takes you into cambridge. that was sadly the campus officer that was shot and killed, that was also known as kenmore square on mitt's east campus and just to the east of that, not far is third street in cambridge where the hijacking took place. everything is easily accessible by the main streets going through the east campus of mit. that's when the pursuit went to watertown. also along the north side of the

charles river, there is a road called memorial drive that travels along the north of the river and all of a sudden turns into mt. auburn street. it's that location where they have to search for the two suspects. still on the loose and still at large, there is a huge area from boston stretching all the way into watertown and all the neighboring towns around that. cambridge and north of the mass pike and south of the mass pike. newton and bright on as well. you can see everything is close by and very easily accessible. a lot of residents, just under a million affected. >> it's such a compact metropolitan area. thank you for doing that. i want to recap where we are. we are in a standoff and it's a

manhunt for the man in the white hat somewhere in watertown. there is an accomplice they are searching for who may have taken an amtrak train in east norwalk, connecticut. they are searching for this individual. there was an unexploded ied device near a boston mass transit station which explains why the entire greater boston area was shut down. >> one quick point, we were just talking about how they are trying to find everything they can about these two brothers. there is an uncle of the brothers in montgomery village, maryland and our colleague at wrc has been out there looking for them. the police are there interviewing him for several hours trying to fill the blanks of the family picture, what is it about these brothers and what

could have motivated them. >> the massive of what's going on. we have authorities locally here and fbi here finding every relative that is being interviewed and quickly put together. >> you think of the network that has been launched since the fbi conference and because of the events that happened in watertown since then. >> it's about bringing the information and you have to analyze it and put it into a picture that makes sense. as we have often said, first reports can be wrong and this is so fast moveth and amount of data that the government is going to acquire and who they know. remember the fbi agent said friends, relatives, colleagues and acquaintances may know who is behind us. everybody associated with this family is going to be talked to. >> we do now know the name of

the mitt campus police officer who was killed. sean collier was 26 years old. he was the one that was gunned down by these two brothers. i am now -- msnbc is continuing coverage all day long. i'm handing it off to chris jansing. take it away. >> i am chris jansing andy we are in the middle of the fast breaking news story on the boston marathon terror attacks. two brothers spent a deadly night and morning. one is dead and one suspect is on the run. they think they have him cornered. a third person, a possible accomplice is on a train surrounded from boston to new york stopped in east norwalk, connecticut. we have an unprecedented situation in the boston area. more than one million people are being told to stay in your home. they are on lockdown. heavily armed police hunt for the teen suspect wanted for the deaths of th t